The Fire Department plays a role in ensuring safety standards are maintained for both commercial spaces and special events.
Fire Safety Plans
A Fire Safety Plan has key information about each building on a property, including floor plans, safety equipment, potential hazards, and evacuation procedures.
A quality Fire Safety Plan can help to prevent fires and minimize damage when they do occur. The cost of a fire will typically be significantly higher than the cost to produce, implement, and maintain a Fire Safety Plan. The building owner or authorized agent is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the plan is correct, complete, and implemented.
For information and advice on how to compile a Fire Safety Plan, please review the Fire Safety Plan Guidelines, which applies to all buildings that require a plan. You can also visit the Fire Prevention Officers' Association of BC Safety Plans website for more information.
Construction Fire Safety Plan
A Construction Fire Safety Plan (C-FSP) is required prior to the commencement of construction, alteration, or demolition operations as per the BC Fire Code (BCFC) Sections 2.8 and 5.6. The C-FSP is required to comply with the BCFC, the BC Building Code (BCBC), the Office of the Fire Commissioner Bulletin (revised April 9, 2013), and the City's Fire Bylaw 8852. Those requirements are summarized in this guideline.
Review the Guideline - Construction Fire Safety Plan (PDF).
Updates and Submission of Fire Safety Plans
Fire Safety Plans should be reviewed and updated yearly, or when there are updates for contact information or alterations to site or floor plans.
Fire Safety Plans can be submitted as PDFs to the City of North Vancouver Fire Department at fire@cnv.org.
Fire Safety Plan reviews have a fee of $157.50 payable to the City of North Vancouver, which must be submitted with the Fire Safety Plan to the Fire Department for processing. Note: there is no charge for Construction Fire Safety Plans.
Fire Safety Guidelines
Commercial Kitchen Safety Guideline
This Guideline is intended to provide you with basic decision-making criteria related to the need for suppression and/or ventilation in your commercial cooking operation. This Guideline is not intended to replace the need for a registered professional.
Review the Commercial Kitchen Fire Safety Guideline (PDF).
High Rack Storage Fire Safety Guideline
This Guideline is intended to provide you with basic information related to the need for a building permit for seismic restraint, and the parameters for maximum racking height and size of storage area for unsprinklered and sprinklered buildings.
Review the High Rack Storage Fire Safety Guideline (PDF).
Liquor Licence & Occupant Load Certificate
A liquor licence, or Special Event Permit (SEP), is required for an event organizer or host to sell or serve liquor in a location that isn't a private residence or place, or licensed establishment.
For an event with liquor in City parks and plazas, or for events that have over 500 persons, please complete the Application Form for Occupant Load Determination (PDF). It should be submitted with a floor plan of the event.
The Fire Department will review for accuracy, and approve as applicable. Please allow at least ten working days for the Fire Department to respond to your application. For more information please contact the Fire Prevention Officer at 604-980-5021.
Occupant Load
The Occupant Load indicates the maximum number of people that can safely occupy a space. Occupant Loads are based on calculations done by a design professional. A designer or architect reviews the intended use of the building or part of the building to determine the occupant load. The occupant load and occupancy classification will then be used to determine the life safety requirements for that building or part of the building.
If the SOL application is for a premises that already has an approved Occupant Load, you won't require a new Occupant Load Certificate provided your event conforms to the approved plan and number of people including guests, servers, and staff (i.e. you are using the identical seating plan, including the table and chair layout); any variation would require a new Occupant Load Certificate. The Fire Department will verify the occupant loads for all SOL applications.
Existing buildings may require an occupant load calculation for an event that has a different layout than was originally approved when the building was built. An example would be a cultural festival in a community gym. The original occupant load typically does not take into consideration custom configurations such as table, chairs, dance floors, etc.
A registered professional should submit a dimensioned floor plan of the space with the intended layout (table, chairs, etc.). The design professional would provide the calculations for the occupant load of the customized space, the exit paths, and doors based on the provisions of the BC Fire Code.
The determined occupant load of the space will be the most restrictive of the calculations and will be reviewed and permitted for that event by the Fire Department if acceptable.
For more information please contact the Fire Department at 604-980-5021 or fire@cnv.org.
Resources
Compliance Letters
You can request inspection information from the Fire Department on any property in the City. This is known as a Compliance Letter Request and will provide available details with regards to the latest inspection of the property. Inspection information will include BC Fire Code and City of North Vancouver Fire Bylaw related deficiencies.
Subject to when the last inspection was conducted, an inspection may be conducted in order to provide a more accurate account of potential deficiencies. This may delay our ability to respond to requests with short timelines.
Permits, zoning, outstanding work orders, occupancy etc. can be requested on the Property and Fire Compliance Request form. You'll also need to submit an Owner's authorization if you're not the registered owner.
Fees and Submission Process
Fees associated with Compliance Letters:
- Compliance Letter or file search per building, first two hours $150.00 plus GST
- Compliance Letter or file search per building, subsequent hours or part of $100.00 plus GST
Please submit your Compliance Letter Request either by email to gateway@cnv.org or by mail/person to:
City of North Vancouver Permits Division
141 W 14th Street
North Vancouver, BC V7M 1H9
An invoice with the total fees will be sent to you upon submission.
Food Vendors & Mobile Trucks
Please review the following documents on food truck safety from the Greater Vancouver Fire Chiefs Association.
Public Events and Mobile Food Vending
The following guideline provides general fire safety information for public events and gatherings. This guideline is applicable to ALL vendors. Some of the following information is specific to mobile food vending.
Food Vendors shall meet requirements defined in NFPA 96. In addition, this guideline outlines specific fire requirements for food vendors and is provided to eliminate or reduce last minute delays to vendors applying for approval.
- All mobile food vendors require a City of North Vancouver Business License. To obtain approval for a business license, mobile food vendors are required to be inspected by the Fire Department for items specified in this bulletin, and to have BC Safety Standards Act certification marks for Electrical and Gas.
- Regardless of cooking or not, all tents and awnings shall have flame resistance conforming to CAN/ULC S-109, and identified as such with a factory label (regardless of clearances, NO exceptions). Flame retardant treatments to tents and awnings shall be renewed as often as required to meet the match test of NFPA 705. No visible grease is permitted on tents and awnings.
- All appliances are required to have appropriate certification and/or listing (e.g. CSA, CAN/ULC).
Parking or Positioning of Mobile Food Vendors
- Mobile food vendors shall not block fire hydrants, fire department connections, or equipment required for firefighting at any time without the approval of the Fire Chief.
- Mobile food vendors shall not be allowed to block fire lanes or fire apparatus access at any time without approval of the fire Chief.
- When Trucks are required to position in a single row, they should be positioned front bumper to rear bumper. 1m clearance must be maintained between vehicles as measured from the front bumper to the rear bumper of the second vehicle, to allow separation and rear egress. All efforts shall be made to separate and maintain clearances between propane cylinders and ignition sources (i.e., generators) as per the BC Gas Safety Regulation CSA B149.2.